My Testimony

Summer of Love

I was born and baptized in the summer of 1969. By the love of God I was saved by grace through faith and born-again in the waters of my baptism and testified to that fact on Pentecost 1984 when I was confirmed. But from there I ventured on my own path that led me away from God's grace and merciful covering. By my 21st year I was a manic-depressive alcoholic who had abandoned God as some "far away force" which didn't really care weather I lived or died.

A loving God?

But the idea that God does not care is simply not true. God loves and cares for us like his own children and disciplines us with His never-failing love. God allowed things in my life to get so bad that like the prodigal son, who one day found himself eating with the pigs, I realized that things in God's house were so much better than where I had found myself presently. That was the early months of 1996, twelve years after professing Christ as my savior, when God opened my eyes to see clearly the state of my life. And like the same prodigal, who came sheepishly home expecting harsh punishment from his father, God lovingly ran to meet me where I was and renewed my faith in Him.

Repent = return

My life was re-committed to Christ on March 17th of the same year (St. Patrick's day) and at that time, God healed me of the brokeness and emptiness of my life. All glory to God! Praise Jesus!

My point

My point is not that before my life was the pits and now it's all a bed of roses.

My point is that God loves us and cares for us and wants to show it, but because of our stubbornness we don't always see it nor do we accept it. That stubbornness will inevitably lead each one of us into a pigsty somewhere at sometime. Pigsty's come in all shapes and sizes: yours may look like a two-bit dive on the wrong-end of town or just as likely, a glass-covered skyscraper in the middle of the financial district. In both places you can find muck and filth to wallow in. Both can be places we want to find freedom, but cannot.

The bad news is that you are in a pigsty and only if you come to God can you be made clean.

The good news is that God doesn't care that you are filthy and covered in muck. The good news is that God is not surprised that you went running into pigsty's. The good news is that He has taken it upon Himself to clean you up and set you right before Him. The good news is that if you come to Him and admit it was foolish to play in the muck, He has promised to take you in and clean you up.

Please check out my About Jesus page to find out more about this awesome, wonderful, and loving God.

Recommended sites

Pray as you GoPray as you go is a daily prayer session, designed for use on portable MP3 players, to help you pray whenever you find time, but particularly whilst travelling to and from work, study, etc.

Taizé podcastsLive recordings of the community prayers in the church at Taizé.